Having experienced homelessness, college student Veronika wanted to create something that would help serve that community as part of a design class assignment. She created a coat that converts to a sleeping bag – a truly innovative concept.

During the prototype testing, a woman yelled at her, berating her for this “band aid” solution, when what homeless people really need are jobs. That’s when Veronika decided to start her own production company and employ the very population she really wanted to reach. At The Empowerment Plan, workers are taught the skills they need to empower their lives while creating products that help others.

……….

Insight came from her personal experience; invention came from her college design class assignment; and inspiration came from listening to the perspective of her target. Well done, Veronika!

What can your small business do by combining insight + invention + inspiration?

In Brand School, students go beyond category boundaries, take lessons from successful brands and twist them with their own business to innovate and serve the consumer who really needs a new choice. See what Brand School can do for you.

“Brand School was helped us set structure to our process, define our target and recognize our customer’s motivations. We were able to create timely taglines and better-defined branding campaigns.” – Randi Curhan, Development Coordinator for Redwood High School Foundation, Non-profit

> Take Me to My Courses

HOW TO POST YOUR HOMEWORK

1. Click on the topic that applies to your current Session (i.e. “#1: Brand Diagnostic: Homework and Comments”).
2. Scroll all the way down.
3. Paste or type your response in the large gray box at the bottom of the page.
4. Click “Submit” when finished.

- Don't Post Your Entire Homework

Make sure you post only what it is indicated on your homework sheets, don’t post the entire homework answers, this will be too long.

HOW TO USE THE COMMUNITY PAGES

- There Are Two Reply Options

A. Scroll to the bottom to reply to the original topic question at the top, or
B. To comment on a specific comment, click the pink “Reply” within that comment. This way your response will be nested and that conversation will be easier to follow.

- Thread

A single conversation is called a “thread.” Each week we will start a new Session thread where you post your homework summary and comment on the homework summaries of your classmates.

- Subscribe

You can click “Subscribe” (at the top corner, in pink) of any thread to receive updates on that topic. You can adjust how you receive those updates inside of your personal profile (click your name, then “Edit” underneath your photo).

- Favorite

You can mark a topic that you find particularly useful as a Favorite so you can easily find it again later. Just click “Add this topic to your Favorites” in the pink at the top. To access your saved Favorites: 1) click on your name when logged in, 2) click on “Favorites” underneath your photo.